Which event on December 16, 1773 protested British tea policy in colonial Boston?

The Boston Tea Party was the December 16, 1773 protest against British tea policy in colonial Boston.

Members of the Sons of Liberty and other protesters boarded ships in Boston Harbor and threw East India Company tea into the water. They opposed the Tea Act and Parliament’s authority to tax the colonies without their consent, commonly expressed through the slogan “no taxation without representation.”

The Tea Act did not simply raise the retail price of tea. It allowed the East India Company to sell tea more directly in the colonies and retain a tax advantage. Protesters feared that accepting the tea would help establish Parliament’s right to tax them.

Britain responded with the Coercive Acts, called the Intolerable Acts by many colonists. These measures intensified resistance and helped lead to the First Continental Congress in 1774. The Boston Tea Party therefore became a major escalation before the Revolutionary War.